Fixed vacuum side leak, now filter appears to hit 15psi after about 5 minutes of Kreepy Kraula.

[highkick05]

I'll start from the begginning. I just wanted my kreepy krauly working, but pump was losing all prime (psi 1) and krauly stopped.
Dug up my skimmer.. found the elbow below the skimmer was falling out. Fixed it sealed tight now, no air in skimmer anymore.. HOLDS PSI NOW and pump is good.
PROBLEM NOW, pump not losing prime anymore but psi increasing and then kreepy krauly stopping. The pool is blue after some shock and 5 bags of salt.. just the bottom has thick layer of dirt on it.
The Krauly did so well getting this off initially when I had it running going over the dirt on the bottom leaving a few huge clear stripes. Now I figure the sand filter (very old) is getting full of dirt quite quickly.
I have backwashed, rinsed and the krauly goes gold for about 5-10 minutes then psi 15 again (10 psi normally) and krauly stops.
Is my sand filter too old, should this last a little longer with the kreepy krauly going? I have pulled this sand filter apart once and the filter sand looks normal but its just caked in strings of algea.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - the pool is not clean.. does everything run better with a clean pool from scratch. So many questions.. but that is it for now.

 

[cwswifty]

Sounds to me like you have so much crud on the bottom of your pool that it is clogging up the filter super fast. Can you kreepy krauly to waste and give the filter a break?

 

[Newdude]

When was the last time you deep cleaned the filter ?

Have you used floccs and such which gum the sand up ?

+1 on vac to waste to get the heavy crud out, then we can address the filter if issues persist.

 

[highkick05]

Sounds to me like you have so much crud on the bottom of your pool that it is clogging up the filter super fast. Can you kreepy krauly to waste and give the filter a break?

That's what I figure.. I've added the shock (concentrated chlorine powder) + 5 bags salt and number 8 on the chlorinator.. (pool shop recommendation) its gone from Green to blue.. but still thick layer of gunk on bottom. but yeah because I've had to let the pool level down to fibreglass the 90 degree under the pool skimmer its sat for a while (3 weeks),
The kreepy krauly has never really been functional in this pool as yet because of the skimmer air cavitation and losing prime. Always the gunk has settled on the bottom then it was a major effort to get it off without a functional vacuum side on the pool pump.

When was the last time you deep cleaned the filter ?

Have you used floccs and such which gum the sand up ?

+1 on vac to waste to get the heavy crud out, then we can address the filter if issues persist.

Perhaps the shock has floccs in it? I've vacuum to waste majority of it. Some large leaves on the bottom does make it stop/start. It's starting to come off.
The deep clean sounds like something worth doing.. It's a very old Davey sand filter.. no more readable marking on it. The glass window to see how dirty the water is , is yellow stained. Replaceable??
I will try recirculate and see what the psi does.. if its the filter inreasing pressure then it should sit @ 10psi on recirculate after a good backwash and rinse yeah?
Atleast after the vacuum is fixed.. I can now seem to fault find issues.. !
Cheers guys.

 

[Newdude]

but still thick layer of gunk on bottom

You're killing algae and it's falling to the floor. The poolstore has the dump and pray method, while we attack it with surgical doses, tested many times to ensure the FC added is in the sweet spot between not enough and too much.

Have a read. SLAM Process. Reliable self testing is paramount to the process. The Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to prove the algae is gone for example, needs a test in the evening after dark and another one before the sun comes up. If you lose FC with no UV/sun on the pool, there's still algae to kill and the battle continues. The pool store isn't open for either of those tests, and test strips aren't detailed enough for either CYA or FC. (forget the accuracy at the moment, which is horrible).

The deep clean sounds like something worth doing.. It's a very old Davey sand filter.. no more readable marking on it.

We rec a deep clean annually to get all up in there and confirm its working to spec, nothing is damaged and to start fresh.

If the sand is sand like, even if it's filthy, it'll clean good as new. If it's rubbery or otherwise gummed up, it needs to be replaced.